Battambang!

We recently visited Cambodia's second biggest city - Battambang. Here are some highlights:

Bats! 2 million of them!

Cooking class! Logan making the paste for fish amok, check out the concentration...

Bamboo train! Yes, a 'train' carriage made from bamboo. It actually went really fast.

View from Phnom Sampov - the site of the local killing caves from the Khmer Rouge era.

An Unexpected Guest

We've recently been exploring opportunities to spend time with Hagar clients. Our first experience was a bit more hands-on than we expected!

Sovann was sold by her mother to be a domestic worker at a young age. She was rescued, and Hagar took her. She was reintegrated to her family - to her grandmother - a few years later. But her grandmother became unwell, and passed away. Sovann was taken by her mother and sold again, this time to a karaoke bar. Sovann was rescued, again, and came back to Hagar. Hagar has done whatever it takes with Sovann for 15 years. She's been through Hagar's programs but yet she has not settled anywhere.

2 weeks ago, Sovann was in hospital because she had been cutting herself. She was told by other women where she was staying that it was a good idea to kill herself. Sovann had nowhere to go and Hagar felt like they were at the end of the road with her. She was discharged from hospital and needed a place to stay for the night. My friend Catherine and I were having lunch with Sue (another Hagar staff member) that day to discuss what we could do to spend time with the women at the shelter. Sue was obviously distracted by Sovann's situation and as she talked about it, I felt to offer for Sovann to stay with us the night. And she did. She doesn't speak a vast amount of English but we managed to communicate. Catherine came over for dinner as well, and we (the girls) painted our toenails and talked and laughed in broken Khm-English.  Sovann sat out on our balcony and watched the people come and go from the Golden Rainbow bar across the road. She was possibly reminded of and maybe even longed for the familiarity of the karaoke bar, despite that she was sold into that experience.

We were a bit nervous that she might try to hurt herself or run away - so we just prayed that God would give her peace and keep her safe, and we put away anything that she could use to hurt herself. Sovann slept soundly and the night went by without drama (except when I awoke to find a cockroach in our bed). When we took Sovann back to the shelter the next day, I told her (and we hope she understands) that we loved having her stay, that she is precious and cared for. We pray that she knows that to be true in the days, months and years to come. Sovann has gone back to stay temporarily with her foster family just out of Phnom Penh and Hagar is supporting her to find a new job or apprenticeship.

-Karen

Slice of Life

Monsoon has begun! We have cycled home in knee-deep water in our ponchos - 2 days down and about 5 months to go.  I am just really hoping that the smelly canal at the end of our road does not overflow! We are blessed that we have found a haven in our apartment. We enjoy coming home to it and even cooking in our limited kitchen. Well, I do anyway J It’s like camping! We even managed to have a couple of my newly found friends (Catherine and Tash) over for dinner. There was no self-saucing chocolate pudding on the menu but it was a good meal regardless J

We have met some wonderful people from all over the world: Canada, USA, Australia, Hong Kong and of course NZ. A social life-line for us has been a weekly lifegroup connected to ICA church. There are about 30 people between 25 and 35 that meet together for a meal and a bible study. They are predominantly NGO workers with big hearts and incredible stories so we are enjoying those connections. We’d appreciate prayer for these friendships to grow and also for continued good health. We are thankful (and somewhat surprised!) that we haven’t been really ill.

We have visited a few churches but haven’t settled anywhere – we go between the English speaking, western style church (ICA or ICF) and the lively Khmer church where we can sing along in English while everyone else sings in Khmer and listen to the sermon in English on a transistor radio via an interpreter. 

We enjoy connecting with our landlords and neighbours (despite the fact that one attempted to take Logan’s wallet but gave it back when he caught her…) Below is a picture of me with Amina from next door. She often pops her head in the door and says hello and runs away. She’s very cute.

Work is challenging and growing us both. We work for Hagar International at the head office of Hagar Cambodia. Hagar Cambodia has a staff of about 180 people (including counselors, case managers and so on). There are about 35 people working for Hagar International and Hagar Cambodia at main office, 10 of which are expats from Canada, Australia, NZ, the Philippines and the US. For the benefit of those who are new to our adventure – Logan is working on marketing strategy for Hagar International, and I am working with the CEO and board of Hagar International. My main project while I’m here is establishing a governance and accountability framework for Hagar globally, as well as supporting Hagar International’s property owning companies and Hagar's Social Enterprise company. I’m also assisting with setting up a new support office in Hong Kong. So while we are not working at the grass roots level with Hagar’s clients, we are using our skills to grow Hagar’s capacity so it can deliver more services to more clients.

Every day brings new sights and experiences for us still. I’m expecting our honeymoon with Phnom Penh to end sometime but long may it last!

Seven things I love about Phnom Penh, in no particular order:

1. Mangos – fresh, dried, in a smoothie, in salads, any way they come!

2. Ordering food where no one speaks English and the menu is in Khmer – last time I ordered I ended up with a whole fish. It was tasty.

3. It’s sunny almost ALL the time.

4. Coffee at Brown– picture below. (Thank you Fitzmaurice family!) It always tastes best on a Monday morning if it’s hard to get going for the week J

5. Cambodian people – they are so friendly, always smiling and happy to help. Even our Khmer teacher Dara when Logan hasn’t done his homework.

6. Amazing thunder and lightning storms.

7.  For $0.60 you can buy a can of beer - even if you are not that keen on beer, you can’t help it at this price or (2) bike up the road from work to a stall where I pick a small coconut, a woman will make a hole in it for me, I drink it dry and then she cracks it open so I can eat the flesh.

-Karen